How do I track a run with Strava?

[thebaldgeek]

I got my Ionic last night, took an hour to set up and get synching (probably deserves a separate post - seems I am not the only one with this hard-to-setup issue).

I want to go for my usual run today, but when you click on the Strava app, it tells me that I don't have any recorded runs and to go for a run, but does not offer a way to start recording.      

Am I to assume that I track the run under Exercise -> Run and after the run it will sync over?
(I have had Strava Premium for some time and been trying to get reliable suffer scores from my Fitbit Blaze - but it could not connect to the phone more often than not).

How do I track a run on the Ionic such that it will go to Strava and give me heart rate and suffer score?

[dbk2177]

I cycled into work yesterday morning - still not in Strava.  Fitbit recorded it though

[Haz11]

Most of my cycle rides have been synced successfully onto strava. However
there was one ride last week which couldnt sync/upload to strava.

Try another ride to see if it works for you. If it doesnt, raise it
directly with Fitbit support.

[dbk2177]

Will do.  Thanks for the suggestions, appreciate it.

[Haz11]

no probs.
I reported a few issues with my device last week and they have agreed to
give me a replacement. There are a few things which really need to be
improved.

[bbarrera]

The syncing problem is almost certainly a Fitbit issue, so you definitely want to report it to them. Reasons I say that:

1. Fitbit servers send the activity to Strava.

2. My Garmin/Zwift rides sync to Strava almost instantly. Over the last year I've ridden an average of 5 days a week with a Garmin Edge 520 bike computer. Garmin Connect is setup to send rides to Strava, TrainingPeaks, RideWithGPS, Endomondo (which syncs ride to my Fitbit account). 

3. Two years ago after buying bike computer I authorized Garmin to sync with Strava. Don't recall ever having to authorize again, sync has just worked. Same with Zwift over last year.

4. About 800 Garmin rides have been sync'd to Strava, and only one failed to sync. When that happened somehow, either by email or on Strava website (I don't remember), Strava provided a link to help article that provided instructions on how to fix the problem (there was a 12 hour time jump in my ride file, had to use an online tool to fix the TCX/FIT file).

So definitely get in touch with Fitbit support, assuming you have authorized Fitbit to sync with Strava (strava.fitbit.com) its likely one of two issues:

- the Fitbit servers not working properly

- Fitbit is generating a bad TCX file and Strava is rejecting it

Hope that helps.

[Haz11]

Thanks . Only one of my bike rides failed to sync to strava so it wasnt a biggie for me .
When you finish a bike ride and sync to the app, can you see your route elevation, because I can't . It shows me distance , calories burnt and a nice map..... but doesn't show me overall elevation unless I login to fitbit.com. Seems strange to me.

The reason I am getting a replacement is because the screen tap feature was not working properly . Also, The screen would sometimes fail to show anything unless I really turned my wrist with force ...

Sent from my iPhone

[bbarrera]

---

@Haz11 wrote:
When you finish a bike ride and sync to the app, can you see your route elevation, because I can't . It shows me distance , calories burnt and a nice map..... but doesn't show me overall elevation unless I login to fitbit.com. Seems strange to me.

---

Sounds right, I don't remember. A long time ago I gave up on using Fitbit to track a ride, so I'm not going to try scrolling back to Surge tracked ride. Unlike every other fitness platform, on Fitbit I can't easily go back and review activities from last month, earlier this year, or two years ago. Maybe I missed something? I've got a lot of activities, scrolling back in time takes forever.

Fitbit doesn't allow importing GPS or HR, all that gets sync'd to my Fitbit account is start time, duration, miles, and calories. So I can't pull up any recent rides like my Saturday ride with 2400' of climbing and look at elevation.

[dbk2177]

---

@bbarrera wrote:

The syncing problem is almost certainly a Fitbit issue, so you definitely want to report it to them. Reasons I say that:

1. Fitbit servers send the activity to Strava.

2. My rides sync to Strava almost instantly. Over the last year I've ridden an average of 5 days a week with a Garmin Edge 520 bike computer. Garmin Connect is setup to send rides to Strava, TrainingPeaks, RideWithGPS, Endomondo (which syncs ride to my Fitbit account). Same with Zwift rides, sync almost instantly.

3. Two years ago after buying bike computer I authorized Garmin to sync with Strava. Don't recall ever having to authorize again, sync has just worked.

4. About 800 rides have been sync'd to Strava, and only one failed to sync. When that happened somehow, either by email or on Strava website (I don't remember), Strava provided a link to help article that provided instructions on how to fix the problem (there was a 12 hour time jump in my ride file, had to use an online tool to fix the TCX/FIT file).

So definitely get in touch with Fitbit support, assuming you have authorized Fitbit to sync with Strava (strava.fitbit.com) its likely one of two issues:

- the Fitbit servers not working properly

- Fitbit is generating a bad TCX file and Strava is rejecting it

Hope that helps.

---

Thanks - really comprehensive and I'll make sure to do this.

[dbk2177]

---

@Haz11 wrote:
Thanks . Only one of my bike rides failed to sync to strava so it wasnt a biggie for me .
When you finish a bike ride and sync to the app, can you see your route elevation, because I can't . It shows me distance , calories burnt and a nice map..... but doesn't show me overall elevation unless I login to fitbit.com. Seems strange to me.

The reason I am getting a replacement is because the screen tap feature was not working properly . Also, The screen would sometimes fail to show anything unless I really turned my wrist with force ...

Sent from my iPhone

---

I was getting that as well in the beginning, sluggish tap and no display unless I turned wrist with force.  I changed the brightness settings from auto to normal then I changed the Screen Wake to manual and it seemed to fix it.  I've since put the screen wake back to Auto and it seems ok so far

[vitalyk]

@KateFitbit thanks for the info. I found that the documentation is a bit vague about which syncing option does what. When I authorized ionic app with Strava, my expectation was that the sync would both push new activities to Strava and show recent activities on the watch. App description confirms that by saying "Strava for Fitbit syncs your runs, ride and other activities from your device right to your Strava profile...". However, it seems, this is not the case. Authorizing the app only allows user to see recent runs on the watch. Second authorization is required on http://strava.fitbit.com/

Another issue I discovered is that you can't record the same activity on Ionic and mobile Strava app. It seems that this would generate a duplicate activity and Strava won't accept it as per https://support.strava.com/hc/en-us/articles/216918087-Syncing-between-Strava-and-Fitbit

[bbarrera]

---

@vitalyk wrote:

Another issue I discovered is that you can't record the same activity on Ionic and mobile Strava app. It seems that this would generate a duplicate activity and Strava won't accept it as per https://support.strava.com/hc/en-us/articles/216918087-Syncing-between-Strava-and-Fitbit

---

@vitalyk Not so sure about that... they aren't "the same" because Ionic will record a slightly different activity. Its definitely true that if you only record with Fitbit, and it syncs to Strava, you will not be able to import the Fitbit TCX (exported from web dashboard). True duplicate activities are rejected by Strava, but activities with overlapping timestamps are ok. 

For example I use Zwift and also record with my bike computer (as backup). Both sync immediately to Strava. They aren't duplicates, even though the timestamps overlap. Same is true for a couple of friends that use both bike computer and Strava app. Sometimes they forget to delete one and I can see two activities in my feed. I solved that problem by making all activities private by default, so for things like Zwift I open Strava app, delete the bike computer one, and then edit Zwift activity to make it public and possibly change the name.

edit: and at least one friend decides which activity to delete because one has a higher climbing elevation, ha ha

[KateFitbit]

@vitalyk appreciate your feedback on the documentation, it will be shared. Regarding syncing the same activity did you find @bbarrera's post helpful? 

@bbarrera thanks for your contribution to this thread. 

[KingChristos]

Yep, keeps saying unauthorized.

Wasting hours on this crap.

[vitalyk]

@bbarrera, that's very interesting. Perhaps my sync was broken for others reasons. I'll test it out with Strava working in parallel to see if I get two activities.

[bbarrera]

Don't be concerned about double tracking, go ahead and use Ionic exercise mode and Strava on your phone in parallel. They are different activities to Strava - the GPS will be different, elapsed time will be different, HR different (if you have BT chest strap for Strava). After Fitbit syncs to Strava, you can open Strava app or website and delete one of them.

On the Strava web interface you can go to Settings > Privacy and make all new activities private by default. Then just delete one, make the other public, and it won't look funny to your friends 

[KateFitbit]

@KingChristos - sorry to hear about the trouble you are having authorizing Strava. Our team is reviewing an issue that is causing some users to have to reauthorize every time they enter the Strava settings and their activities will not sync as a result. There should be a fix shortly. Thanks for your patience. 

[937dytboi]

How did u do this?

[ErikBM]

Any news / updates on the Strava syncing issues?

Got my Ionic yesterday and set it up without issues. But my morning ride does not sync to Strava (I have followed the instructions given in this thread).
Recent Strava activities show up on the Ionic but the ride logged by the Ionic does not show up, neither on the watch or in Strava.
The ride itself is logged as it should, watch, app and web. With elevation data etc.

When I try to manually download the TCX file (wanted to try a manual sync to Strava) I get an error message saying; The activity TCX file could not be downloaded. We are looking into the issue.

Is this an issue on servers or I am doing something wrong here?

[dbk2177]

UPDATE - from my original post

I've now done another 4 cycles but instead of letting the Ionic auto detect the activity I selected the bike exercise from the watch itself.  All 4 rides synced with Strava.  I'm wondering if it's the auto detect that gave me the issue.  The Ionic recorded the auto detected ride as Outdoor Bike, maybe this doesn't sync with Strava whereas the selected 'Bike Ride' does.

[Haz11]

Good point and worth asking Fitbit support directly to get their view on this . To be on the safe side I would not rely on the automatic detection for cycling . It only takes two swipes to select the cycling feature

Sent from my iPhone